Book:
Whatever It Took
An American
Paratrooper's Extraordinary Memoir of Escape, Survival, and Heroism in the Last
Days of World War II
by Henry Langrehr &
Jim DeFelice.
Published by William
Morrow.
Illustrated edition.
Published 2020.
Hardcover.
ISBN-10: 0063027429
ISBN-13: 978-0063027428
Description:
"Extraordinary. ...
Reveal[s] [Langrehr] as a person of great courage and strength who did whatever
it took to survive." – Quad-City Times.
“Simply
fascinating...reads with all the emotional impact of a finely crafted
novel...an extraordinary and impressively presented military biography.” – Midwest
Book Review.
Published to mark the
75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person
account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived
D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made a daring escape
to freedom.
Now at 95, one of the
few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in
one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told. As the Allied
Invasion of Normandy launched in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, Henry Langrehr,
an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, was among the thousands of
Allies who parachuted into occupied France. Surviving heavy anti-aircraft fire,
he crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse in Sainte-Mère-Église. While
many of the soldiers in his unit died, Henry and other surviving troops
valiantly battled enemy tanks to a standstill. Then, on June 29th, Henry was
captured by the Nazis. The next phase of his incredible journey was beginning.
Kept for a week in the
outer ring of a death camp, Henry witnessed the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality – the
so-called Final Solution, with people marched to their deaths, their bodies
discarded like cords of wood. Transported to a work camp, he endured horrors of
his own when he was forced to live in unbelievable squalor and labor in a coal
mine with other POWs. Knowing they would be worked to death, he and a friend
made a desperate escape. When a German soldier cornered them in a barn, the
friend was fatally shot; Henry struggled with the soldier, killing him and
taking his gun. Perilously traveling westward toward Allied controlled land on
foot, Henry faced the great ethical and moral dilemmas of war firsthand,
needing to do whatever it took to survive. Finally, after two weeks behind
enemy lines, he found an American unit and was rescued.
Awaiting him at home was
Arlene, who, like millions of other American women, went to work in factories
and offices to build the armaments Henry and the Allies needed for victory.
Whatever It Took is her story, too, bringing to life the hopes and fears of
those on the homefront awaiting their loved ones to return.
A
tale of heroism, hope, and survival featuring 30 photographs, Whatever It Took
is a timely reminder of the human cost of freedom and a tribute to unbreakable
human courage and spirit in the darkest of times.
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